Rutgers and Camden agree on new dormitory

The Camden County Improvement Authority and Rutgers-Camden have struck an agreement to develop a dormitory for graduate students near the Camden campus, officials involved in the project said yesterday.

The authority approved a memorandum of understanding with the university yesterday. Rutgers gave its approval earlier this week.

As part of the agreement, Rutgers would lease 350 beds for seven years for student use. Several sites are under consideration.

The facility, which the university would not own, would cost between $50 million and $80 million, and would include parking and ground-floor commercial space, according to improvement authority director James Blanda.

University Chancellor Wendell Pritchett said the graduate dorm was part of a Rutgers-Camden plan to increase enrollment to 7,500, up from about 6,000, and to expand the number of students living in the area, called University Village. Rutgers has about 750 students living on or near campus - about 550 in two dorms and the rest in private apartments.

"My goal is to grow that number to 2,000 in five years," Pritchett said.

The existing dorms operate at 115 percent capacity, with students living in converted common areas, Pritchett said. They also have waiting lists. The university is also exploring a plan to develop another undergraduate residence.

The graduate dorm would aid in the strategy to assist Camden, the state's poorest community, by expanding educational institutions and hospitals.

"It will be an anchor," Blanda said.

So far, Blanda said, proposals have been submitted by three developers: Pennrose Properties of Philadelphia, Sora Holdings of Sewell, and Camden Student Housing, based in Marlton and created for this project.

The authority hopes to makes its selection by January, Blanda said, and open the dorm in fall 2011. All of the proposals involve property in the Rutgers vicinity, including a plot bounded by Cooper, Market, Third and Fourth Streets that Rowan University considered last year.

In the spring, Rowan bought the former First Camden National Bank & Trust Co. building at Cooper Street and Broadway for about $3 million. The plan is to turn it into offices and classrooms and increase the Glassboro university's Camden enrollment to 1,500, up by 1,000 students, according to Rowan spokesman Jose Cardona. Rowan now shares downtown space with Camden County College.

Rowan also plans to open a $100 million medical school with Cooper University Hospital. The first class is expected to be enrolled in 2012.